Imperfectly Perfect
by xForeverDazzledx
Summary: Jonas and Gabe reach the end of the hill and stumble across a neighborhood. Could this be there hapily ever after? EPILOUGE TO THE GIVER, though chapter 24 works, too. ONESHOT


Jonas lightly tugged on the rope of the sled as he neared the end of the hill. When it was completely stopped, he stood up bringing Gabriel up with him. For some reason, as he stood up he felt… different, almost lighter, as if he had left a piece of himself at the top of the hill. He wondered if Gabriel felt this sudden change, too.

He was now walking forward, absorbing the scene of brightly lit houses ahead of him.

"Can you believe it, Gabe?" he said, "We made it!"

The little boy responded by giggling.

Jonas continued trudging through the snow faster and faster as he became more anxious to finally reach Elsewhere. Sometimes he moved too fast and tripped, tumbling through the snow, but that didn't stop him.

As Jonas moved closer, the music he had heard grew louder, and he could make out the words they were singing.

_On the 7__th__ day of Christmas_

_My true love gave to me…_

_Christmas? What's Christmas?_ He thought, _and what's a true love?_ These new questions made him even more eager to arrive at the houses.

Jonas was now close enough that he could make out groups of people. It looked like there was some sort of gathering going on.

He had now reached the town, and he was walking on pavement. His legs ached from all the walking, but he knew how close he was. He now noticed a large group of people all dressed in red and green standing on a stage like the one in the auditorium, which was strangely located outside. He decided this was where the singing was coming from. There was an even larger group of people in front of the stage, probably watching the singers. He walked towards them hoping they could answer his questions, but his rumbling stomach reminded him of something more important.

"Excuse me, sir?" he said to a man who was bundled up in a variety of cottons he couldn't name, "Is there any food leftover from the last meal?"

The man turned around revealing a pale face with tints of red in the cheeks from the cold. "I don't know about leftovers," he said in a husky voice, "But there are some treats over there." He pointed to a table near a pit of fire, and chuckled.

"Thank you, sir." He quickly walked away, readjusting his hold on Gabriel.

Jonas stopped dead in his tracks when he saw the so called food. All he saw was a bowl full of white cylinders which reminded him of pillows, only smaller. It didn't look very appetizing.

Next to the table, Jonas found a girl who was holding a stick with a white cylinder on the end over a pit of fire.

_What is she doing?_ He thought. He walked over to her to ask.

"Excuse me, what are you doing?"

The girl turned around, almost dropping the stick, "What?"

"What are you doing?" he repeated.

"What does it look like I'm doing?" she snapped.

"Holding a stick with a white cylinder on the end above a fire." He stated, a little offended by her attitude.

"How about 'roasting a marshmallow'?" she suggested.

"What's a marshmallow?" he asked curiously.

"You're kidding, right?"

"No, I'm serious. I'm not from here," he explained. He shifted Gabriel to his other side.

"Where _are_ you from?" she asked in disbelief.

"I'm not sure, exactly. But it's very far from here. I hiked for several days trying to find civilization."

"I can tell," she said, referring to his tattered clothes and haggard look, "Why'd you leave in the first place?"

"My community was very… different from this one. That much I can tell just by looking at your community."

"How is it so different?" the girl questioned.

"Well, putting food out like this for example. We would receive or meals at meal time. And when they did put out food like this at school we were only allowed so much. And we couldn't take it home."

"Couldn't you just buy food?"

"What do you mean 'buy'?"

"You know like, with money. You give them money, they give you food," she explained.

"Money?" Jonas was confused.

"Don't tell me you're town doesn't have money."

"I don't understand what money is."

"Ok, maybe you use something else. Does your town have a currency?"

"Not that I know of," he told her.

"You come from a weird place."

"No, not weird. Just horrible. Absolutely horrible!"

"How so?" the girl asked.

"We had no…," he struggled to find the right word, "freedom. Of course, they made sure no one realized that. They made us take pills to keep us from feeling any emotions. We couldn't really be happy, or sad, or angry. We couldn't even love! It was horrible!"

"Then how'd you find out?" The girl asked. By the look on her face, you could tell she was thinking this boy was crazy.

"I was given a job called The Receiver of Memories. No one in the community could have memories of the outside world. So they gave them to one person, who would give them to another when they got too old and so on. I am one of these people. Us Receivers, we were the only ones who really knew how horrible our community was. Well, until now, anyway."

"What do you mean 'until now'?"

"As I got farther and farther away from my community, I began to loose my memories. They didn't disappear though. I think they were released to the people in my community. I could barley handle it and I'm worried that they won't be able to."

"I don't see what's so bad about this," she said.

"The people in my community have never felt some of the things in the memories I received. They've never felt sunshine, and the cold, or any type of real pain. The pain is what will make it hard for them."

"Sorry this is kinda off topic, but where are your parents?" the girl asked.

"They're back at my community. I'll probably never see them again."

"Then where do you plan on living?"

"I'll live outside for now. Unless someone was to take me and Gabriel here into their home."

The girl stared at him incredulously, until her face lit up and she exclaimed," I bet we can take you! Hold on, I gotta ask my parents. What's your name again?"

"Jonas."

"Alright Jonas, stay right there," she started running away, "I'm Hollie by the way!" she called.

Jonas waited for what felt like forever. He even ended up trying one of the marshmallows because he was so hungry. They tasted much better then he expected.

Hollie eventually came back with a woman who looked like she could be her twin, and the man who had directed him to the food earlier.

"Mom, Dad, this is Jonas," she introduced.

"I don't believe it," the mom muttered.

"I thought there was something wrong with you when I first saw you. I didn't realize it was something like this," the dad said.

"I told them your story," Hollie explained, "They said they had to see it to believe it."

"Thank you," Jonas said.

"So, can they live with us?" she asked her parents anxiously.

"I don't know. I can't imagine the pain his parents are feeling right now, after losing him," the mom said.

"Oh, it's not like that where I come from. We don't have love, or any feelings for that matter, where I come from. They'll just receive a replacement Jonas next year," he explained. _That is if they last that long_ he mentally added. He didn't want to confuse them too much. There would be plenty of time for questions later.

"Well, we'll have to fill out papers. We can't just take you without their permission," her dad told them.

"Why don't you say they're your nephews and they're parents died? It's a believable story," Hollie suggested.

"I don't know if it works like that, honey," her dad explained.

"Isn't there _anything_ we can do? Please? I feel so bad for them," she begged.

Here parents looked at each other for a moment, and then the mom said, "I guess we could try."

"Yay!" Hollie cried, "Welcome to the family Jonas!" she gave him a hug.

Jonas took a second to realize what she was doing, but hugged her back.

"You too, Gabriel," she added. The baby giggled.

"Thank you so much, all of you," Jonas said, "I think my life will finally perfect again."

"Oh, trust me," Hollie said to him, "it's impossible to make things perfect. Maybe something that's filled with flaws, but feels perfect, but never just perfect."

"Ok then. Thank you for giving me my new imperfectly perfect life," he couldn't help but smile as he spoke. Gabriel started giggling again, and Jonas and Hollie started laughing, too.

_It's imperfectly perfect, _Jonas thought.

**A/N- So that's it!! This was only one of the endings for Jonas I have. This was a school assignment and basically I finished the rough draft and suddenly got some new, more realistic ideas to what happened to them, but I didn't have the time to write a new one, so I handed this in. I might write another one some time. Reviews are appreciated, constructive criticism is welcomed, but please don't flame!!**


End file.
